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Christmas and my favorite atheists

In high school back in the 1970s, I remember two good friends who were terrific performers. She soloed “Silent Night” in the annual high school Christmas program. He played Jesus in “Godspell.” They both loved the Christmas story and happy to join in on the celebration, even though they are both atheists.

I suppose their reasoning is the same as Professor Bart Ehrman gives for loving the Christmas/Jesus story, even though he is now an agnostic.

One of the things I haven’t lost, oddly enough, is my love of Christmas. I no longer believe the Christmas story told every year. I now know that the story of Jesus’ birth in the Gospel of Matthew is very different from the story in the Gospel of Luke, that their accounts are not simply differently nuanced, but factually at odds. And I know that we don’t have their original accounts, but only the accounts as handed down by scribes who often changed the accounts, making it sometimes impossible to know what the originals said. In one sense, I’ve lost something of the wonder of Jesus coming into the world, for I now realize that the biblical narratives are not history, but are in fact, stories.

But they are beautiful stories. Angelic visitors, heavenly inspired dreams, miraculous works: a virgin conceives and bears a son! There are shepherds and wise men and wicked kings and murdering soldiers and near escapes; tragedy and salvation.

The stories live on, with or without my faith in them as history. And the meaning of the stories continues to touch me.

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3 thoughts on “Christmas and my favorite atheists”

It would be awesome. I have been perplexed as to what it is about the Holy Family that is so offensive. Young poor family temporally homeless, poor and the learned are their friends, love of animals, message of peace and hope. What is there not to love?

I assume you realize that most American atheists do celebrate Christmas. I know lots of atheists, and I’ve never met a single one who thought that non-belief was something that should make you stop celebrating Christmas. Don’t believe everything you see on Fox News. 😉

I don’t believe everything on Fox News, as I rarely watch it. However, we are entering a period of atheist activism, where there is an active attempt to diminish Christ and Christmas. Some locations are having to stop their annual holiday display, because atheists want to display anti-Christ things at the same time and in the same location. Others are placing billboards and ads on buses, etc., telling people to stop believing in God and fables.
Instead of celebrating diversity, or seeking their own space and time to display things pro-atheism, they seek to encroach on a wonderful holiday.
I just wanted to share my experience with a few atheists/agnostics, who do appreciate the Christmas story, even if they do not believe it is historical.